


Sugar and Blood

by Celuth



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game), Guild Wars Series (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, Halloween, Humour, Mad King's Labyrinth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-28 06:28:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8435125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celuth/pseuds/Celuth
Summary: Avoiding his father and his obnoxious friends, timid human Jaken happens across a creepy, disembodied door and does the only logical thing. Clearly.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween!  
> This story features several of my own OCs, hoping to post more stories featuring a bit more background on certain folks in the near future.

There were screams in the distance unlike anything Jaken had ever heard. Absolute terror saturated the air, the source of which he couldn’t even see. Not that he could see a lot. Grey walls loomed above him, crushing him with their presence. There was nothing but death all around, the skeletal remains of trees and humanoids alike. There were rusty looking specks splattered across the greying bricks and the uneven, broken path. The air stank of iron and sugar.  
  
An hour ago he wouldn’t have believed there was anywhere in Tyria he’d like to be less than huddled alone in the corner of his own father’s birthday party. Then again, getting proven wrong was nothing new for Jaken.  
  
He flinched and whimpered as a gaggle of bats shot by overhead, the leathery flapping of their wings betraying their presence against the dark grey sky. With unsteady steps, he began to walk sideways along one of the walls, firmly keeping his back to it as he clutched his father’s hammer in both hands. A particularly close by scream caused him to freeze. Something landed heavily on the ground out of sight with a wet squelch. Footsteps crunched closer on the uneven earth. Jaken thought of running back the way he had come but that cursed door had dumped him in a dead end. There was nowhere for him to go.  
  
He grit his teeth and raised the hammer as he sunk down. The ill-fitting, rented suit he wore was dark – perhaps in the gloom he would go unnoticed? The head of his hammer wobbled as his hands shook. The footsteps came closer then stopped abruptly with a whoosh.  
  
From around the corner, a ghast drifted with purpose into view and Jaken screamed. The thing was a void of black so absolute it played tricks on his eyes. Wisping tendrils of darkness danced around it and glowing eyes of cold emerald turned to Jaken. He froze in horror, his mind stood still.  
  
The thing stared at him a moment, then seemed to roll its spectral eyes. The black void mist ebbed away and a pair of charcoal coloured leafy feet touched down to the bloody cobbles. Jaken’s brow furrowed in confusion as his brain slowly defrosted.  
  
“I… Sylvari?”  
  
“No,” the former ghoul said bluntly. “I’m a sylvari. You appear to be a particularly stupid human. How did you get here?” He was dressed in a grand robe of leaves, the same charcoal colour as his plant-skin. In one hand he held an enormous, black greatsword that appeared to have seen recent use, dark blood and green ichor dripping from it.  
  
“T-t-there was a d-door-“  
  
“Urgh, sounds familiar…” the sylvari muttered under his breath. “How much of this blasted maze have you managed to explore?”  
  
Jaken lowered his eyes, embarrassed. The sylvari’s shoulders sagged.  
  
“So you’ve just been cowering in this corner the entire time you’ve been here, yes?”  
  
He nodded sheepishly.  
  
The sylvari shook his head and grumbled something irately that Jaken couldn’t hear. “Come on then, you idiot. I could use a meat shield.”  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“Get. Up.”  
  
“O-okay,” Jaken skittered upright, slipping on the loose bloody ground as he nervously scurried after the sylvari.  
  
  
#  
  
  
Jaken followed the grouchy sylvari, who had begrudgingly told him his name was Nickori, through the winding corridors of the Mad King’s realm. They passed numerous bodies in varying states of decomposition and Nickori left a few fresh ones behind them as well. Blood and bone littered the ground, along with little orange, yellow and white cones. They were dotted everywhere, almost like snow. Once or twice they had passed large mounds of the things.  
  
“Nickori,” he whispered as the sylvari glanced around another corner. “What is this stuff?”  
  
“What does it look like?” he spat.  
  
“Uh… well… candy corn.”  
  
“Wow, great solve,” Nickori said, sneering over his shoulder. “Have you ever considered joining the Priory?”  
  
Jaken recoiled, drawing his shoulders in and flinching as another distant scream pierced the night. “L-look, I don’t know what I’ve done to you but-“  
  
Nickori glared at him a moment before furrowing his brow, looking thoroughly annoyed. “It’s nothing personal,” he said finally, “but how about some quiet time, okay?”  
  
Jaken frowned but nodded. There was no way he was getting out of here on his own. The last thing he needed to do was anger the only person not trying to kill him in this cursed realm. The sylvari peeked around the corner again and growled in irritation.  
  
“I’ve had enough of this,” he muttered before striding around the corner.  
  
Jaken, not wanting to get left behind, darted after him before sliding to a halt on the loose earth. Stood in the tall, grimy corridor ahead was a skeleton, picked clean from time and wielding a sword in one hand. Jaken’s heart went into triple time, mind whirring. Yes, Nickori had a sword and obviously knew how to use it but how could he kill something that was already dead? Their only chance was to run and-  
  
“Hey you!” Nickori yelled at it. Jaken’s heart went from racing to stopped dead. The skeleton turned empty eye sockets to them, the eerie emptiness of them chilling him to his core. “Yeah, you. Where’s the way out?”  
  
The skeleton threw back its head and laughed. “There is no way out. This is your home now, the realm of the Mad King.” The skeleton raised its sword and even with no skin Jaken could see its grin. “Let me welcome you properly.”  
  
“Is this supposed to scare me?” Nickori asked with a scowl. Jaken’s eyes widened at him.  
  
“I… well… I mean, I am dead,” the skeleton said defensively. “And I have a sword.”  
  
“Dead,” the sylvari said flatly. “You’re trying to scare me with dead things.”  
  
“Well… yeah. I mean, it normally works. Why wouldn’t it work?” the skeleton asked, arms gesticulating hopelessly.  
  
Nickori sheathed his massive sword into the scabbard on his back and then almost boredly clapped his hands once. The ground on either side of him erupted in small plumes of dirt and two grotesque beasts crawled out. The stench hit Jaken immediately, rotting, putrid flesh and decay. The two beasts looked as though they might once have been dogs, now warped and twisted by undeath. Lumps of greening meat and skin hung from exposed bones with patches of old hair clumped and matted by gunk. They both looked at the skeleton, brown saliva running freely over sharp teeth on its way to the soak the ground.  
  
“Dead things don’t really bother me,” Nickori said nonchalantly. “They look kinda hungry and I’ve run out of bones of them to chew on.” He smiled at the skeleton. “You sure you don’t know the way out of here?”  
  
  
#  
  
  
“Well, his memory certainly started working quickly, didn’t it?” Nickori laughed as they made their way through the labyrinth.  
  
“Can we go back to not talking, please?” Jaken asked meekly. His gut roiled.  
  
“Oh, come on. You can’t be that upset by a little bit of necromancy.” Nickori glanced over at him and grimaced. “You’re not going to throw up again, are you?”  
  
Jaken put a hand over his stomach.  
  
Nickori sighed. “Fine, I’m sorry I was harsh when we met. And I’m sorry Spot got rot on your trousers. You’re okay, I guess. Even if you are useless.”  
  
Jaken hugged his hammer closer and frowned. He didn’t want to try and dispute it just in case that angry lettuce left him behind. He also didn’t want to try talking again, because he there was a very strong possibility that he would be sick more. They went on in silence for a while until finally they were just a few turns away from where the skeleton had said the exit should be.  
  
“What if it’s not there?” Jaken asked just before they rounded the corner.  
  
“That’s why I took the skull,” Nickori replied, holding up the small sack he’d been carrying since their encounter. “That way if he is trying to get one over on us we can have a friendly chat about it.”  
  
Angry muffles came from the bag.  
  
“Oh shut up, you.”  
  
They came to the last turn. A strange noise emanated from around the corner. It sounded like… slapping. Slap slap slap slap. Pause. Slap slap slap slap. Pause. Over and over.  
  
“W-what’s that?”  
  
Nickori grinned at him. “It’s a relief, that’s what it is. Come on.”  
  
He set off round the corner and Jaken frowned and hurried after him. There was a door at the end of the corridor, dark and oaken. In front of that was a pile of the corpses of nightmare creatures. Twitching, dismembered skeletons; giant, freakishly rigid spiders; slowly melting sugary elementals. And next to that was a small, turquoise quaggan. Jaken blinked at the sight. The quaggan spun on them, dropping a spear to a fighting stance, before its big lips pursed in excited recognition.  
  
“Coo! You made it! You found my trail!”  
  
“Trail?” Nickori asked, sheathing his sword again and starting towards the quaggan.  
  
“Yes, yes. Quaggan found door ages ago. Left a trail of blood and candy corn for Nickori to follow to safety!”  
  
Nickori and Jaken glanced at each other before both looking back to the delighted creature.  
  
“Toolamoo, have you seen anywhere in this labyrinth that isn’t covered in blood and candy corn?” Nickori asked.  
  
Toolamoo opened her mouth then closed it again. “But plant thing found way. So it must have worked.” She nodded with conviction.  
  
Nickori threw his hands up. “Right. Okay. Whatever. We’re here. Let’s go.”  
  
Toolamoo looked to Jaken and her eyes widened curiously. “OooOOoo! New friend?”  
  
Nickori glanced at him and furrowed his brow, a look of disgruntled ambivalence on his face. Then he sighed. “Yeah, I kinda, I guess. Now let’s go. And maybe in future leave strange, disembodied doors alone, okay?”  
  
Toolamoo’s face drooped as she waddled along next to him. “Ooooo-kaaay.”  
  
Jaken smiled as he scurried after them both towards the mysterious door. It had been an… interesting experience, but maybe not as quite bad as sticking around for his father’s party after all.


End file.
